Tuna and mercury

  • I eat about 15 ounces of Starkist tuna per day. Virtually every day. Do I have to worry about mercury poisoning? If so, is there a way I can get my levels tested?
  • I think that's too much. There is a calculator online that shows how much tuna you can safely eat, and it's based on the FDA guidelines. Your ticker shows your weight as 232. Assuming that is accurate, you can safely consume 21 ounces of light tuna per week. If you eat albacore tuna, you have to eat much less. When you reach your goal weight of 146lbs, you'll have to eat even less at 13 ounces per week.

    It's pretty shocking!

    http://www.ewg.org/research/tuna-calculator

    Your doctor can test you for mercury.
  • This is so weird, I was just research fish in regards to food safety yesterday - I found this as a resource: [Apparently I'm too new to post links, so if you google "what fish are safe to eat" it's the 4th link, its a government website]

    Also just from my reading yesterday it is 100% dependent on what type of tuna you're eating, it's not all created equal.
  • I Googled too, and I read many, many different things. That's when I decided to try accessing our collective wisdom. Thanks so much for the links, Suzanne and designchick. I feel all kinds of stressed about it, as I really have been using tuna as my go-to food (obviously ). But I would feel a whole lot more stressed if I was hospitalized for mercury poisoning. <sigh> Looks like I shall have to diversify my intake of lean protein.
  • Makes me glad I don't care too much for tuna, lol.
  • Quote: I think that's too much. There is a calculator online that shows how much tuna you can safely eat, and it's based on the FDA guidelines. Your ticker shows your weight as 232. Assuming that is accurate, you can safely consume 21 ounces of light tuna per week. If you eat albacore tuna, you have to eat much less. When you reach your goal weight of 146lbs, you'll have to eat even less at 13 ounces per week.

    It's pretty shocking!

    http://www.ewg.org/research/tuna-calculator

    Your doctor can test you for mercury.

    This is really helpful for those of us who love tuna. Thank you for posting it Suzanne!
  • A few months ago, I completely switched to from albacore tuna to salmon out of mercury concerns because I eat it several times per week over salads, and sometimes I eat it more often than that. I just buy the Chicken of the Sea pink salmon pouches. Not sure of the exact ratio, but the canned/pouched salmon has like 1/35 of the mercury in albacore tuna, and 1/10 of the mercury in regular tuna - dramatically less!

    I wasn't sure what it would taste like, but honestly it tastes very similar to tuna with a bit of the salmon flavor, but it wasn't a deal breaker for me. The texture is the same and the appearance as well as color was very similar, regardless of the "pink" name. It was an easy food substitution to make. Another added benefit if you are interested in this sort of thing, is that salmon in particular packs a whollop when it comes to Omega 3 fatty acids, far superior to any variety of tuna. If you give it a try, update and let me know what you think! Good luck